Understanding the Kaleidescape, RealDVD Cases

If you’ve been seeing the recent press surrounding the recent court rulings against Real Networks and Kaleidescape and wondering just what’s going on, you’re in luck as Julie has you covered. She covers some common misconceptions about the court rulings and what the future may hold for both. Hopefully managed copy can come out already and then we won’t have to worry about it (because it will work perfectly, right?!?) 🙂

Electronic House

Real (and others) rely on the so-called fair use doctrine (section 107) of copyright law (title 17, U.S. Code) that grants the “fair use” of copyrighted work. Surely making a back-up copy is fair use? Judge Patel shot down this argument of Real’s, reiterating that the DMCA prohibits the “circumvention of access controls in ways that facilitate copyright infringement and for trafficking in circumvention devices that facilitate copyright infringement.” As ruled, RealDVD does just that.